Friday, July 13, 2018

[503] ‘MTSU On the Record’ searches for answers at Stones River National Battlefield

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. —
Uncovering history without unearthing bodies will be the topic of the next
“MTSU On the Record” radio program.

Host Gina Logue’s interview with Derek Frisby, a lecturer in
the Department of Global Studies and Human Geography, will air from 9:30 to 10
p.m. Tuesday, July 3, and from 6 to 6:30 a.m. Sunday, July 8, on WMOT-FM Roots
Radio 89.5 and www.wmot.org.

Frisby is one of two recipients of the 2018 James E. Walker
Library Digital Seed Grants. The library awards the stipends to fund either
research or teaching projects that incorporate digital tools and platforms into
their scholarship.

With the cooperation of the National Park Service, Frisby
will work on “A Geography of Suffering: Digital History, GIS and the Stones
River National Battlefield Cemetery.” More than 6,800 bodies are interred in
the Murfreesboro cemetery. It memorializes the Civil War’s Battle of Stones
River, which occurred on Dec. 31, 1862, and Jan. 2, 1863.

Students will use geographic information systems, or GIS,
technology to connect spots on the battlefield with various historical sources
in order to help tell the stories of the soldiers buried there.

“One of the things that has struck me is how little the
cemetery itself figures in the interpretive framework of the battle,” Frisby
said. “So I wanted to bring the cemetery back into the narrative of the battle
and … the memory of the battle.”

To hear previous “MTSU On the Record” programs, go to http://bit.ly/mtsu-otr.

For more information about the radio program, contact Logue
at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.